I heard that as part of some sort of secret deal, Saddam got 5x M1 Abrams tanks in the late 1980s (re armed with soviet guns).
Allegedly this was part of a bribe for him to keep his mouth shut about Iran-Contra once he found out.


Anyone have any info on this?

"I've been to one world fair, a picnic and rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing I heard over earphones." © Maj.Kong

Me calls BS.
For example: Why Soviet guns? Iraq used few 105mm vehicles and had some captured stockpiles and anyway would be able to buy 105 ammo somewhere.
Anyway, five M1's will be too good a piece of argument to miss for all those saying how the US armed Saddam, so no chance

Not to mention that 5 re-gunned M1s would make a real lousy bribe

This was widely reported right after the 1st Gulf War. The reports even gave the tanks the name of "Lion of Babylon". Line drawings were included to show the 125mm autoloader.

Who knows if the reports were true or not.

Davout

Thats what I was asking... I thought maybe someone would know if it was somthing that could be verified or not. I also thought it may explain a few of the friendly fire incidents... if a reporter saw a burnt out Abrams, how would they know if it was US or Iraqi.

Oh and as to it being impossible, most of Iran-Contra was impossible (giving arms to the Iranians)... but it happened.


5 would be a lousy bribe... but not such a bad deal for someone who could trade 1 of them for 100 soviet tanks (or some other arbitrary number)

Assad Babyl (Lion of Babylon) was Iraq-produced T-72M1.

Lion of Babylon were Iraqi built T72M1, there where some line drawing and maybe even soem mack-ups (with wood armor) that showed a M1 inspired turret shape.

Or maybe rather Chinese-inspired? Didn't China started with their welded-turret tank about that time?

It is just plain retarded. With five tanks you can just raise a single platoon of tanks which will require an entirely different set of spare parts than the rest of the fleet. It is just a pain in the ass.
A battalion with a large stock of spares might have been worth it but just five makes no sense at all.
Some american radar or other electronic equipment would have a much more logical choice. Less recognizable to untrained eyes and far more useful even in limited quantities.

Probaly confusing Iraq with Iran and thier M-1ish looking what'camacallit (I don't even feel this thread diserves the effort to look up its designation).

No. Iraq never recieved any M1s. Even when the US and Saddam were at their coziest relationship, Iraq was strongly wed to French, Soviet, and Chinese suppliers. His only American equipment came as war prizes from the Iranians.

From what I understand, the US was trying to sell Pakistan M1's during the 80s under Zia ul Haq, though after some test trials, the Pakistanis were unhappy with the performance of the M1 variant that was displayed. I never heard the US trying to sell Iraq M1 variants though.

the lion of babylon had some indigenous features. it had a jammer mounted on the left side of the turret, to the left of the IR-sight, shaped like a cylinder.
it also had a tube-like system designed to throw up dust i think.
there weren't much else added to it though.

This topic came up on Missing Lynx a couple of months ago.

Apparently it has its basis in an article written for a 1994 issue of Military Modeler by a Mr. Wayne Williamson. He built a "what if" Iraqi M1 and wrote a fictional "background" story to accompany the article.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47209/messa...n%27s+M-1+tanks







>EDITED< to remove a superfluous word.

IM glad to know the truth now... the story was related to me as being the truth. Thats why I asked about it here. I did see how it could be plausible. But now it has been laid to rest.


Does anyone have pix of the model as built by Williamson?